MEET THE CAST

Team Jingles

Santa

David Westbrook

David studied piano for a year at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama followed by a degree in English and Drama at Sheffield University. He was a core member of Sheffield’s Compass Theatre Company for many years, performing in (among many others) The Dumb Waiter, Waiting for Godot, A Christmas Carol, The Caretaker, The Wind in the Willows, The Merchant of Venice, Measure for Measure, King Lear, Hamlet and The Tempest.

Elf

Martin Atkinson

I’m from Norwich and live on the Norfolk/Suffolk border. During my early years I trained with Red Rose Chain Theatre Company. Credits with Red Rose Chain include: Hamlet (outdoor); Romeo & Juliet (outdoor).

Martin has worked with Blunderbus Theatre Company and toured internationally playing Boy in How To Catch A Star at the Madinat Jumeirah Theatre, Dubai. Baker in Dotty the Dragon in Simply Theatre, Switzerland. Other credits for Blunderbus include: The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark and The Selfish Crocodile.

Martin has worked extensively for Birmingham Stage Company on their ‘Horrible Histories’ shows – both on and off the stage! Highlights include performing at Hampton Court Palace and touring Australia & New Zealand last year with The Best of Barmy Britain.

I am very excited to be making my debut in Norwell Lapley Productions ‘Dear Santa’ this Christmas!

Session work Credits: Watch the Skies (‘Second City’ Album, backing and featured vocal) Frog the Dog Blog song (featured vocal).

TEAM BELLS

Santa

Paul Croft

Paul Croft is an actor, comedian, and a trained singer and due to his good looks and perfectly white beard, is often playing Father Christmas, (Sail With Santa).

His recent acting credits include: The White Plague - based on Blindness by Jose Saramago, Winston Churchill in Doodle The Musical, by Jonathan Kydd & Andy Street, Othniel Marsh, in TV show, Dinosaur Wars, produced by Double Shot Films. Paul also had a lovely little role in The Sense Of An Ending, BBC Films/Origin Pictures in 2015.

Other credits include: Piccadilly Cowboy (2007), Bad Acid (2015) and We Know What We Know (2010).

Elf

Sam Hoye

Sam trained at Guildford school of Acting. His credits include: Crow/Puppeteer in The Snow Queen (Polka Theatre) King of Hearts/Cook/Dormouse/Puppeteer in the Olivier nominated production of Alice's Adventures Underground - The Vaults, Waterloo (Les Enfants Terribles) Monty in Monstersaurus! - Southbank Centre (Nick Brooke Ltd/Big Wooden Horse). Plop/puppeteer in The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark, touring the UK and Malaysia (Little Blue Monster Prods.) Muddles in Snow White (Hoxton Hall) Wishee Washee in Aladdin (Cambridge Arts Theatre) Floyd in the original premiere of STUCK by Oliver Jeffers, touring the UK, USA and Malaysia (Big Wooden Horse) Breakout! (Cockpit Theatre) Ludovic in No Picnic (Waterloo East Theatre) Tootles in the world premiere of Peter Pan - A new musical for Michael Rose Ltd (BGE Theatre, Dublin/Mayflower, Southampton) Clerk in the Bespoke Overcoat (New End Theatre) Tom in Tennessee William's This Property is Condemned (Fairfield Halls, Croydon) Michael in Someone Who'll Watch Over Me (Belltable theatre, Limerick) Tommy the Cat in Dick Whittington (Hawth theatre, Crawley).

Commercials include: The Sun newspaper, 118 118 and Not on the High Street.

Sarah

Beth Higgs

Beth recently graduated from Momentum Performing Arts Academy.

Credits include: The Secret Garden (The British Theatre Company) Snow White and the Seven Poofs.

Feature Film credits: Bollywood, and short film Clued Up

Beth is thrilled to be joining the cast of Dear Santa and is looking forward to spreading some Christmas cheer!